IN ENGLISHNext I dyed with dried Cortinarius purpureus (syn. Cortinarius phoeniceus).It is very similar looking webcap as more common Cortinarius semisanguineus, and grows here in rich spruce forests. Apparently it craves more rich soil than C.semisanguineus, and the mushrooms in these pictures were growing around an old and big anthill, where there was a thick layer of needles on the ground.

IN ENGLISHCortinarius purpureus is usually big webcap, and it has thick flesh and looks sturdier than C.semisanguineus. Sturdy impression comes from shorter and thicker stem in C.purpureus compared to the stem of C.semisanguineus. In the pictures above and below there are two C.semisanguineus on the right , and you can see the difference in the stems. Also the color of the cap may be different. The most important difference, added to the over all habitus, is the stem. C.semisanguineus stem is slim, pale yellow with red velum only at the base of the stem, while C.purpureus has web-like red on the whole stem, which gives it redder impression.These differences are relative, so they are difficult when you haven't yet found both of these mushroom, but when you find C.purpureus for the first time, you can immediately see, that it is something else than C.semisanguineus:).

IN ENGLISHThe dyestuffs in Cortinarius purpureus are mainly reds, dermocybin and it's glucosides, and that is why the after bath of C.purpureus from less orange or yellow than when dyeing with other webcaps. On the other hand Swedish Lundmarks's book says that particularly the after baths from this mushroom are not as lightfast as the after baths from other Cortinarius mushrooms. That is why I used now a lot of mushrooms: 100g of dried C.purpureus to 100grams of yarn. I soaked the mushroom over night, then simmered for one hour, and after cooling the bath, added the mordanted fiber. The mushrooms were in the same bath with the fiber during the dyeing, and this is why the color is slightly uneven (the parts of the fiber which touched the mushrooms got more color), but I think the darker color from the first bath is really nice. Now I have to wait for the next good mushroom autumn to get more of these.

IN ENGLISHCortinarius malicorius is a small dye mushroom (the cap is about 5 cm wide), which has orange gills. It can be mixed with Cortinarius cinnamomeus which is more common, or Cortinarius sommerfeltii, which is more rare here, but C.malicorius is easiest to identify from the other two by it's dark olive green flesh in the stem (outside the stem is yellow, it is the flesh inside which is olive green). The Swedish name for this mushroom is Grönköttig spindling which means green-flesh webcap. The Finnish name for this mushroom is tulihelttaseitikki which means fire-gilled webcap.Cortinarius malicorius grows here in rich spruce forests among moss, while Cortinarius cinnamomeus grows more with pines in sandy or rocky ground.There are good pictures of this mushroom in the Finnish mushroom forum, here and here, and you can read about it also in Mushroomexpert-pages.Cortinarius malicorius is a very good dye mushroom, and it contains more yellow anthraquinones than red ones. According to Swedish Hjördis Lundmark's dye book, also the after baths from C.malicorius are more lightfast than after baths from many other mushrooms. The color is gives to wool is brighter than what I have gotten from Cortinarius cinnamomeus, but many times it is easiest to put all these different orange gilled webcaps in the same dyepot, and it is likely that you get some kind of orange anyway. Though if you find enough of C.malicorius, it is better to dye with it alone. All yellow gilled webcaps are better to keep separate from these orange gilled ones. In the forests around my house C.malicorius is not common, I have found it only a couple of times, but I got a large bag of dried mushrooms from a friend who is a mushroom expert and lives norther. I dyed the above colors with her mushrooms, and gave just the right colors for my orange Tulips mitten kits:)I soaked the dried mushrooms over night, simmered them for one hour and strained the dye bath. I could have left the mushrooms in the bath also. I used 70grams of dried mushroom to 100grams of yarn. I like to use rather too much than too little mushrooms, so that the first color will be deep enough. The yarn was pre mordanted with alum (10%) and cream of tartar (5%), and after dyeing for one hour I got the darker orange in the picture. The lighter color below came from the after bath.

IN ENGLISHIt is still winter over here, even in south of Finland, and it is almost end of March already. I have sown tomatoes, herbs and some primulas inside, but not yet any dye plants, I think I will sow first of them next week, before Easter. Before the snow melts and gardening season starts I have begun to dye with my big stash of dried dye mushrooms. Most of them are Cortinarius semisanguineus, but I have smaller amount of many other mushrooms, too. More about them when I have something to show. This is also a good time to mordant yarn for the summer dyeings, this way the mordanting has time to cure before summer. I need a lot of yarn, kits, mittens and hats for the market in the summer, and now is the time to dye the yarns and knit so that I have enough to sell in the summer.Usually at this time of year my first snowdrops are flowering (or at least peaking from the ground), but not this year. I was so much missing them and so I started to design and knit snowdrop-mittens:) After knitting three pairs ( and after frogging several times) I now think my design is how I want it to be, but I'm still hesitating between colors, and I need to knit at least one more pair to compare. But I believe I will have them ready to show and as a kit during April.

IN ENGLISHIn the old oaks by the small road to our house there are lots of lichens. One morning last week the woodpeckers had been in the oaks trying to find food from the crevices of the bark and in the process lot of lichens had fallen off the trees to the road. Many times also after storms you can find fallen lichens. Lichens grow back very slowly, and gathering them from where they are growing is not recommended, but fallen lichens like these, or the ones from felled trees, can be used in small amounts in places where they are abundant.

IN ENGLISHThese lichens in our trees are mostly here very common species Hypogumnia physoides and Platismatia glauca. They both give fast yellow, brown and orange colors to wool without any additional mordant.

IN ENGLISHThe biggest lichen in the picture above is Pseudevernia furfuracea. I dye also these lichens with the usual boiling water method among other lichens, because my own experiences on the lightfastness of colors (pinks/purples) gotten from lichens with fermenting in ammonia are not so good (but I admit I would need to experiment more with longer fermenting times, longer times MAY improve the fastness). The yellows and browns are however lightfast. On the other hand you can get yellows very easily from many common plants, and using lichens for dyeing is by no means necessary. These lichens just happened to fall almost literary to my feet:).Lichens are not very easy to identify, and I know only the most common ones around where I live. There are pictures of lichens in Finnish site Valokki. If you see a lichen which looks special or different than others nearby, the odds are that it is rare and it is better to leave it where it is.

Saturday, March 9, 2013

IN ENGLISHGerda from Netherlands sent me pictures of a big blanket she had crocheted from our yarns, Riihivilla Aarni. It looks very nice how all the naturally dyed colors show up from natural white background:)Thank you Gerda.

IN ENGLISHOur small craft fair yesterday went really well, there where lots of people and weather was nice, except late at night when we were driving home it had started to snow so much that in the last part of a small road, couple of kilometres from our house, we were afraid that we would get stuck in the snow, but luckily got through the snow. It had snowed about 20 cm yesterday, and wind had blown it in big heaps on the road, the snowblower had not driven our small road yet by then.These pictures from the fair were taken just before closing so there weren't any customers left, during the day the whole place was full of people.Thank you everyone, it was really nice to meet you all:) And of course thank you my fellow sellers!

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WHY USE NATURAL DYES

"We can keep the knowledge of their use alive, as well as regaining for ourselves a vital contact with the natural world. The ability to correctly identify the plants needed, to understand their growth stages sufficiently well to be able to obtain the greatest dye, offer both challenge and pleasure."

We sell our yarns, mitten kits, knitted things and my husband's photographs at the market Kauppatori in Helsinki. From mid September until mid May my husband will be at the market only on Saturdays if the weather is good. Occasionally also some other days. This week we will be at the market on Monday September 25th, Wednesday September 27th and Saturday September 30th.